Don't Call Her a Cheap Date!

Dates can be expensive. $40 for dinner, $30 for a movie, and if you have children an additional $30 for the babysitter, my point is it all adds up quickly. But is it really necessary? Sometimes I think we get lost why we go on a date in the first place. Think back to a time that involves a younger version of you, a time when you were just starting out on your own. If you are like most people you probably didn’t have a pot to piss in. Did that stop you from dating? Heck no! You still went out on dates. And if I was a betting man, I would be that you probably remember some of those dates better than any date you had recently. Why is that?

In my opinion you remember those dates for a couple of reasons. Fist is that you were probably somewhat new to dating. Anytime we experience something new we are likely to remember it. Second, and more importantly, is because we connected with our date on an emotional level. The focus of the date was not what you were doing, it was who you doing it with.

Some of my first dates with my later to be wife consisted of:

• long car rides
• listening to music
• walking through the mall holding hands
• high school football games

Most of the things we did together, and things like them, allowed me to focus on her, to connect with her and to share who I was, my beliefs, my dreams and vice versa. As time passes I think people lose sight of that. They start to focus on doing things that cost money instead of doing the things that keep them and their significant other close. Not doing those things cost you in other ways. Your significant other might feel disconnected from you or you might feel like you have “lost touch” with your significant other. That gets me to this week’s recommendation. Take your significant other on a cheap date. Take a drive or go for a walk. Whatever it is, separate yourself from the “same old, same old” and make the focus of the cheap date each other and reconnect. Talk, listen and share. It might just be the best date you have had in quite some time.

Till next week.